Results from Tuesday's two practices for Daytona 500

Defending Daytona 500 champ Michael McDowell was fastest in the first practice, while Ryan Blaney was No. 1 in the second practice

Defending Daytona 500 winner Michael McDowell showed Tuesday that he's ready to pick up where he left off last February.

McDowell was fastest in the first of two NASCAR Cup practice sessions with a speed of 192.736 mph. David Ragan was second-fast at 192.666 mph, followed by Todd Gilliland at 192.649 mph.

McDowell also was No. 2 among the 10 top consecutive lap average at 190.298 mph. Gilliland was atop the 10 top consecutive lap averages at 190.311 mph.

“Practice as you know, is situational," McDowell said. “We sort of had a game plan going into practice to try and work with our Ford teammates, in particular, with the Roush Fenway Keselowski cars. And so we wanted to get out in that group and just kind of play around with the draft and not put ourselves in a bad situation where you’re two or three-wide but just kind of line up.

“It worked out well where we were lined up four or five of the Fords and catching the Toyota pack. Lap time here is very situational on where you get the draft and where you get the runs. But I feel really good about our Ford Mustang. Had good speed, drove pretty well, did all the things you’re looking to do with minimal practice and not being in that three, four-wide crazy situation.

“So I feel good."

In the second practice session, Fords dominated, capturing the top 10 and 11 of the top 12 fastest speeds, led by Team Penske's Blaney at 192.588 mph, followed by teammate and Busch Light Clash winner Joey Logano at 192.135 mph, and Cole Custer at 191.103 mph.

Cup rookie Austin Cindric posted the Best Consecutive 10 Lap Average at 189.359 mph, followed by Logano at 189.205 mph and Cup rookie Harrison Burton at 189.194 mph.

At the opposite end of the spectrum in both practice sessions is former CART and Formula One champ Jacques Villeneuve, attempting to make his way into the race.

Villeneuve struggled in both sessions, recording the 40th-fastest (out of 42 drivers) speed at 180.469 mph in the first practice session, and then was even slower in the second session, clocking in 41st of 42 cars at 178.042 mph.

Given that only 40 cars make the field on race day, it's pretty clear Villeneuve has his work cut out for him and his team, Team Hezeberg, needs to find a lot more speed.

Wednesday is the traditional NASCAR Media Day at the Speedway, followed in the evening by Pole Qualifying for the 64th edition of the Great American Race at 8:05 pm ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) for Daytona 500 Qualifying Presented By Busch Light – setting the front row for The Feb. 20 Great American Race (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Qualifying this year will feature a slightly different format. There will be two rounds - the first consisting of single-car runs with the top-10 cars advancing to a second round. The fastest two cars from that round will earn the front row starting positions for Sunday’s race.

Here are the results from Tuesday's two practice sessions: